Seneca Portrait Bust, Bronze, Italy, 1780/1800

Seneca portrait bust
Italy, 1780/1800
Bronze cast and engraved
Eyes inlaid with marble

Casting and workmanship of very high quality; cast and chased.
Museal, very early reproduction after the original found in Herculaneum in 1754, now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
Height 49 cm (bust without base 35 cm)

Seneca, whose name was actually Lucius Annaeus Seneca, (c. 4 B.C. to A.D. 65), was a Roman statesman, philosopher, and poet. An outstanding writer of the Silver Age of Latin literature (Silver Latinity), he was one of the leading Stoics of the city of Rome. In the Stoic conception of Seneca and his thought, wisdom as well as steadfastness, self-control and a calm mind are considered great moral qualities to face the adventures of fate.

In 1754, during excavation work led by Charles de Bourbon, the bronze bust of the philosopher Seneca was found in Herculaneum at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. Originally, the sculpture stood in the papyrus villa of Pison, Caesar's father-in-law. Today it is kept in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples.